If you write to me how much you like my blog, and then suggest to “swap links”, what it tells me is that you don’t like my blog all that much. If you did, you’d link to it, swap or not. False flattery makes me cross, and I don’t link to people when I’m cross.

That’s it. In a nutshell.

I’ve thought link swap offers were mildly insulting for years; way back in 2004 in an article full of adult blogging tips, I wrote, already weary:

If someone emails you about an “exchange of links”, but hasn’t put your own link up yet, they are telling you “I don’t think your site is good enough to link to, but I’ll do it anyway if you’ll link to me first.” Screw that. Half the time, even if you do put up the link, they never reciprocate. But the important point is: they don’t respect you enough to link to you. They only want your return link. Again, screw that.